Love and Rockets
'
Earth, Sun, Moon
reins in the rampant excesses of
Express
while remaining psychedelic; the near white-out of the cover gives a clue to the music, as many of the songs emerge from a soup of white-noise guitar distortion. Much of the record addresses, in its nebulous fashion, hope and disappointment; the title track and "Youth" are two of their most simple, yet most affecting songs. Not a "normal" pop record by any means, it's more straight-ahead than their previous work and includes the upbeat single "No New Tale to Tell," a college radio hit that set the stage for the band's popular breakthrough a year later. ~ Jonathan Ball